Batman: Dream Caravan
by AceOfKnaves
Summary: Little girls have been vanishing without a trace from all over Gotham, abducted by a mysterious duo. The police are clueless as to who the perpetrators might be, and Batman is only just figuring out their patterns. As more children disappear, the Dark Knight Detective closes in, desperate to stop the kidnappings. Rated T for possible disturbing elements, and implied... nastiness.
1. Prologue

**Good evening Ladies and Gentlemen.  
While I realize that I am in the middle of another story at the moment, this idea has been rattling around in my head for a while, and has been refusing to let me go. And because it's not a terribly long story, I thought I'd start working on it along side my pre-existing one. I'm hoping it will be as creepy and gripping to read as it has been to think up. So, without further ado, here's my "****_Dream Caravan._****"**

**Oh yes, and I lied about the "without further ado" bit. Disclaimer: I don't own ****_Batman_****. It and all associated characters belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers, respectively. **

**Cheers.**

* * *

"Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly… Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly…"

In a shadowed room filled with smoke, a man sat, sewing a doll. The doll had on a little yellow dress, and a white pinafore.

The man inhaled a deep puff of smoke, finished stitching the doll's body together, and continued to sing to himself.

"My Dream Caravan, has a thousand beautiful dreams…"

He picked up a porcelain doll's head with a rim of cloth on the bottom, and began to stitch it onto the doll's neck. It had a pretty little girl's face, with freckles, bright blue eyes, and auburn hair.

"Each night I behold, any dream I wish, so it seems…"

He added the finishing stitches to the doll, and held it in front of him, admiring it.

A man in a mask entered the room, and glanced at the man with the doll. "'Where have you been all the day, my boy Tammy?' 'I've been all the day, courting of a lady gay: But oh! She's too young, to be taken from her mammy.'" His voice was hushed and high pitched for a man.

"Good, then if you're ready, the time has come." The man with the doll said to the man in the mask. "You know what to do."

The man in mask simply turned, and walked out of the smoky room.

The first man sat, puffed more smoke, and set back to work on the doll, singing once again.

"Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly… Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly…"

He opened up the back of the doll's head with a pair of tweezers. He used the tweezers to put a tiny chip inside the doll's head, and closed it back up.

"My dreams come and go, as the smoke rings spiral and fade…"

He exhaled a ring of smoke, stood up, and looked at the doll once more.

"Strange visions appear, and they chant this weird serenade…"

He looked past the doll, to the row of nine chairs lined up against a wall in the smoky room.

"Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly… Zoom, Golly-Golly-Golly, Zoom, Golly-Golly…"

The first five chairs had little girls, in blue and yellow dresses with white pinafores, sitting in them. They were all sleeping heavily as if drugged, and they were all shackled to their chair by their arms, legs, and necks.

"Zoom… Zoom… Zoom…"

* * *

**So how was ****_that _****for a prologue? Let me know in the box below, and stay tuned for the next chapter!**


	2. What are little girls made of?

**Here it is, Chapter 1. And I'm uploading it the same night as the prologue! I know, I know, shocker. Two chapters within a few hours of each other. Don't get too used to it!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own **_**Batman**_**. It and all associated characters belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers, respectively.**

* * *

Anya Anissina was ten years old. She was a pretty little girl, with a freckled face, auburn hair, and bright blue eyes. And on this particular afternoon in Gotham city, she was on her way home from school. It had been a fun day for her. She had spent recess with her best friend Jaycee, she had aced her vocabulary test, and her teacher had announced that later in the week the class was going on a field trip to the zoo.

She began to hum to herself as she walked along the sidewalk towards her block. Her mother didn't like Anya walking home by herself, but she worked, and Anya always stayed after school for a half an hour to paint, so she couldn't take the bus. Besides, their neighborhood was relatively empty, so the streets were essentially deserted during the afternoon. Anya only lived two blocks away from the school, and she usually walked with Jaycee. But Jaycee's family was going on vacation, so she had had to leave right after school. So today, Anya was walking home alone.

As she walked past a darkened alleyway, a red rubber ball bounced out of it. Anya caught the ball, and peered down the alley.

"Hello?" She called out, taking a step into the alleyway. "Is anyone there? I have your ball."

A thin, boney hand in a black fingerless glove reached out of the dark. "What are little girls made of?" whispered a voice. The hand opened its fingers, and held out a palm-full of candy. "Sugar, and spice, and everything nice…"

"Is that for me?" asked Anya, stepping closer. "Thank you." She reached out to take a piece of the candy, when the hand grabbed her by the wrist, and pulled her into the alley.

"_AAAAAIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!_" Anya's scream of terror was cut off by the hissing of gas. The alley grew deathly silent.

"…And _that's_ what little girls are made of."

* * *

When the police arrived at the scene there was nothing left except the pieces of candy and the red rubber ball on the ground. No one had seen what had happened to Anya. Her mother had reported her missing when she had come home in the evening and found the house empty. There were no clues in the alley as to where Anya might have gone.

* * *

Perched on a rooftop overlooking the alleyway, observing the scene through a pair of binoculars, was a figure in a black cape and a mask. The Batman.

This was the sixth disappearance in the last month. Penny Kranzer, Lauren Dean, Emma Kane, Amelia Prayton, Sarah Morris, and now Anya Anissina. At first, the police had not connected the disappearances to each other, assuming them to be individual runaways or abductions, and had investigated them as such. The girls had disappeared from all over Gotham city, never the same neighborhood twice. Their ages ranged from seven to twelve, their physical features were drastically varied, and their families ran the gamut of social classes. The only thing they had in common was that they were all girls, and all fair skinned. But after the fifth girl had disappeared in as many weeks, Commissioner Gordon had decided to call in the Batman.

Batman finished surveying the scene. There was nothing much to go on. The infrared in his binoculars showed that there were no fingerprints on either the candy or the ball. And since both had been dropped in the alley, it meant that the fingerprints left by whoever had been holding them had been removed. But the infrared was revealing some kind of chemical residue on the ball. He swooped down to the scene, and, taking a microscope slide out of his belt, scraped off a bit of what little there was on the ball. He put the slide into a small digital analyzer, and waited for it to tell him what the substance was. After a few moments, he had his answer: A unique type concentrated, fast acting anesthesia.

Batman grappled back to the rooftop. This was the first and only piece of evidence left at any of the disappearances, and all it told him was that the girls had been taken by someone who knew how to use chemicals. That told him virtually nothing. Hoping to learn more, he told the analyzer to display the substance's chemical components. Halothane, Trichlorethylene, Ether, Nitrous Oxide, and trace amounts of an unidentifiable hallucinogen.

"Fear Toxin." Batman muttered to himself. "Crane."

* * *

**And here we go. The stage is set, and everything's swinging into action.**

**As always, I welcome constructive criticism, so any mistakes you spot, or tips you might have, feel free to post them.**

**Keep Smiling!**

**-AceOfKnaves**


	3. Who's out there?

**Wow, I have another chapter finished already. If I keep up like this, I'll rip a hole in space-time!**

**Well, any-who, I hope you enjoy reading this!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own ****_Batman_****. It and all associated characters belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers, respectively. **

* * *

In a dark, smoke filled room sat five little girls and a man with a doll. The girls were shackled to their chairs, and sat as if sedated. Each little girl had a doll in her hand. Out of the backs of the doll's heads were several wires. The wires went up, and connected to pads on each little girl's head. The man sat, hidden in the shadows and smoke, giggling and singing to himself. "She's all my fancy painted her, she's lovely, she's divine. But her heart it is another's, she never can be mine…"

Into the room stepped a man in a mask, carrying a burlap bag with something lumpy in it. The man in the chair stopped giggling, and a clicking sound was heard, as if he had switched something off. "Can I take it by your presence and your package that you have returned triumphant?"

The masked man carefully swung the sack off of his shoulder. "Weep not for little Leonie…" He turned the sack over, and dumped out a little girl with freckles and auburn hair. "Abducted by a French Marquis…"

"Lovely…"came the voice of the man in the dark. "I assume you have learned what you need from this one?"

The man in the mask nodded.

"Good!" replied the man in the dark. "Then you may stand down… then you may sit down… then you may go."

The man in the mask simply turned and left through the door by which he had come in.

"Oh dash it all. He never wants to have any fun… Ah well. His rhymes are amusing, and I cannot fault his work." The man got up out of his chair, and walked over to the little girl. "Lovely…" he repeated. "Lovely little Anya." He picked up her limp form, carried it to the line of chairs on the wall, and set her down in chair number six.  
"Now you just stay right there," He said, placing the doll on her lap, and turning to walk away. "And I'll be right back. Those clothes you have will never do. You'll want new ones. I have _just _the thing!"

* * *

It was almost two o'clock in the morning, and Batman was getting nowhere. He had been to seven different shady establishments, bars, brothels, clubs, and gambling rooms frequented by the criminal element, and turned up nothing. No one had heard or seen anything of Dr. Jonathan Crane, A.K.A. The Scarecrow, since he had been incarcerated in Arkham Asylum three months ago. And no one knew of anyone else with access to Fear Toxin.

He had been to all of Scarecrow's old hideouts, and found nothing. They were all either the way they had been when Crane had last used them, or else winos or hoodlums had moved in. He was about to start investigating chemical factories for workers with names involving a play on the word "crow", when a voice came through his cowl's transmitter.  
"Sir, I have discovered something that might be of interest to you."  
"What is it Alfred?"

"I was using the Bat-Computer to research our old friend, Doctor Crane, and I came upon something rather odd. According to the files at Arkham Asylum, Jonathan Crane is still in his cell."

"Are you sure? He's the only one who knows how to create his Fear Toxin, and none of the usual dealers have bought any from him."

"I'm positive Sir. I just got off of the phone with Doctor Arkham, who checked Crane's cell himself."

"Thank you Alfred."

Batman crouched on a gargoyle, deep in thought.

_If Crane is still in Arkham… Who has his Fear Toxin? Who am I dealing with?_

* * *

**Who ****_is _****Batman dealing with? Who is the mysterious man in the shadows? What is going to happen to the little girls? Is this author's note completely ruining the dramatic tone of the chapter? Find out in the next chapter, coming… at some point.**

**Keep Smiling!**

**-AceOfKnaves**


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